|
Post by glen on Feb 11, 2018 13:29:16 GMT -6
I just can't relate to this conversation. Carnival is going on here in Panama. Total Chaos. Its super hot and bright and windy and dry. Temperatures in the 90's before noon. Garden crying for water and the water gets sucked out of the plants and the ground almost as fast as I squirt water on them. Last May's okra still producing. Each plant has produced hundreds of okra and still going. Peppers struggling but still alive and providing steady supply of ahi. Beans struggling now in this hot wind. Cowpeas happy. Avocado did set fruit for the first time this year. Malay Apple had a small February harvest. Plantains providing nice green bunches. Lemon tree not setting fruit this year. I planted whole sweet potato's to get slips. The slips are ready but its so hot out I don't have the motivation to go out there and plant the slips. We got our first 2 oranges also this year on the ugliest citrus tree I have ever seen and the oranges are probably some of the ugliest I have ever seen as well. The man said this tree was an orange tree when I bought it. I would have called it a mutant ninja orange. I got to go out and cut okra in a few moments so you all have a nice weekend. Its so hot. Oh, we get this wind every year that comes from the NE that starts in January or so and stays with us for months. It blows right thru the house. Blows dust and dirt in also but this wind makes living here tolerable during the dry season. Gardening is really hard now in this wind. Plants are just suffering and water is in short supply here.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 15, 2018 0:32:32 GMT -6
Glen,
That sounds a whole lot like Our neck of the woods, here in the month of August. Hot, dry, and windy too. Usually, 90 degrees by 11:00 am. We get winds here in August that blow from the South for about two weeks pretty steady. Usually, the water in the lake is so hot by then, that minnows just live right on the surface. I guess they do that because of low oxygen from all the decay that goes on in the hot months?
After about two weeks of those high winds, most of the minnows end up on the North end of the lake, where Sandbass like to congregate to tear them up in a huge feeding frenzy. The water where Sandbass are feeding on minnows looks like someone is firing off a machine gun into the lake. If you paddle out there at dusk, with a fishing pole and a silver spoon you'll be guaranteed to come home with fish for dinner.
Gardening in August is a lost cause here, most years, but the fishing kind of makes up for it.
George,
I'm still laughing about your abstinence from eating the voles and rats that ate your sweet potatoes. I had those in 2016. They destroyed a lot of sweet potatoes. For some reason, in 2017, they weren't much of a problem. My guess is that the flooding in May and the resulting 8 days of standing water may have taken care of those, so we got a break from them for a year? I think it would take a flood like the one Noah experienced in order for us to get a break from the deer though.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 31, 2018 13:39:46 GMT -6
I just finished breaking a patch of new ground for a Fall garden like you wouldn't believe. We had a torrential rainstorm yesterday. It's too wet to plow the main garden still, but not too wet to plow tall weeds.
It's currently 90 degrees outside, so working the garden area is no Holiday with the brutal humidity. I just now stepped into the house to cool down a little and catch up on my garden blog. The spot I chose to break up today, had heavy weeds as tall as my fence posts and as thick as hops. It was quite a chore getting all those weeds knocked down and chopped up for use as mulch!!!
After several dozen passes with the tiller, I finally have a patch of ground I can call a "seedbed." It's rich in organic matter and well aerated by several dozen passes with the tiller. I got my turnips, radishes, snap peas, carrots, collards, lettuce, and broccoli planted today. (I couldn't find any beet seeds).
I've been picking okra all week. This evening, I still have to pick more. Tomorrow, I have to set up at the Farmers' Market to sell the 135 pounds of okra that I've already picked this week, plus whatever I pick this evening.
Here's hoping for more energy and enthusiasm than I need and some good fortune in establishing this year's Fall garden. This is what the South end of my garden looks like today. A little too muddy to plow... This is what my Fall garden looks like today. It's amazing what 6" inches in elevation can do for drainage. This piece of ground is directly adjacent and to the West of my garden. This is the final product; a deeply tilled, 200' foot long by 20' foot wide, well-drained, loam with lots, and lots, of freshly incorporated organic matter. As you can see by the photo, the weeds were as tall as my fence posts. (One of my fence posts can be seen with a blue coffee can on top of it.) It was no picnic, knocking all those weeds down and getting them plowed under today. The high temperatures were actually in my favor. The hot sun really dried everything up as I went along. Plus, the heat and humidity will readily decompose the green matter that I plowed under today, making it food for my Fall crops. Now that the hard part is done, maybe, I can get some raking done this weekend.
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Sept 1, 2018 5:12:18 GMT -6
Beautiful! Today I hope to put out some more stuff for fall.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 6, 2018 21:40:41 GMT -6
So far, I've got Turnips, Daikon Radishes, Arugula, Black Simpson Lettuce, carrots, collards, broccoli, beets, and Austrian Winter Peas planted in my Fall garden.
We've had lots of rain since I sowed my seeds on September 1st. I can already see the Austrian Winter Peas germinating.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 25, 2018 21:51:29 GMT -6
I read today, that there are about 170,000 purple top turnip seeds per pound. I planted about 7/8 of a pound of turnip seeds and gave the rest to George. It looks like I definitely have tens of thousands of 2" to 3" inch turnip greens growing in my Fall turnip patch. Those should make plenty of feed for my hogs within the next month or so.
If all goes as planned, that should serve to save me a lot of money on feeding cracked corn later in the year. (Not to mention the fact that I just enjoy harvesting them).
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 29, 2018 11:01:50 GMT -6
My Fall crop of Arugula seeds and my Black Simpson Lettuce seeds have finally sprouted after last week's heavy rains. Just last Friday, the ground was powder dry and the temperatures were running in the high 90s, now, since the rains, everything is looking alive again.
My Fall turnip patch is off to a great start and my cover crop of Austrian Winter Peas are filling in nicely too. Tiny Arugula sprouts forming. These should be ready to harvest sometime in late October. The 200' foot by 20' foot turnip patch is filling in nicely. Hopefully, this will be enough for the deer, my hogs, me, and possibly a few lucky neighbors as well. Lots of tiny turnip greens. They'll be great for Thanksgiving dinner. Some Austrian Winter Peas filling in between my old played out okra rows. Come Spring, I'll plow them under as an organic green manure. The Roselle crop is just now coming in. These plants are over 6' feet tall and loaded with red calyces. A closeup of some of the Roselle calyces that are ready to be used for making some awesome Autumn time tea. Who says the garden season is over, just because the tomatoes are done?
|
|